AMERICAN POTTERY. 95 



of the finest clays; cheap transportation by water, as well as by rail; and the 

 proximity to the coal region and to two large cities combine to foster its growth, 

 and to make the locality the Staffordshire of the United States. 



Meantime, with all this growth of domestic production, the home 

 market is expanding faster than the rate of supply from home 

 sources, as is evidenced by the values of earthen, stone, and china 

 ware imported into this country during the following fiscal years : 

 In 1869, $4,372,607; in 1870, $4,388,771 ; in 1871, $4,681,376; 

 in 1872, $5,270,785; in 1873, $6,015,945, and in 1874, $4,882,- 

 355 : aggregate for six years, $29,611,839. Of this very large 

 aggregate, Great Britain contributed to the amount of $23,766,- 

 646, distributed annually as follows : in 1869, $3,687,532 ; in 1870, 

 $3,571,859; in 1871, $3,889,397; in 1872, $4,151,150 ; in 1873, 

 $4,646,688, and in 1874, $3,820,020. But Englishmen are not 

 satisfied with this close approach to a monopoly of the patronage 

 we bestow upon foreigners. On the contrary, their souls are aglow 

 with indignation at the restrictions placed on international com- 

 merce by our iniquitous system of tariff. So deeply are these cos- 

 mopolitan philanthropists imbued with feelings of disinterested 

 solicitude for our industrial development and welfare to be brought 

 about by Free Trade ! that several English manufacturers last 

 year visited the United States to familiarize themselves with the 

 nature and extent of the American competition which had begun 

 to overmaster them in our markets, and which was threatening to 

 annihilate their business in this country. These large-hearted, 

 generous-minded, sympathetic Britons were so overwhelmed with a 

 sense of the folly, delusion, and injustice embodied in our Protec- 

 tive policy, that they returned home with the noble resolve, as 

 they expressed it, " to unroof the potteries in Trenton, and destroy 

 the plant of capital there." This reveals the genuine spirit of 

 British Free Trade, whose occult meaning is that we should send 

 our clay, our sand and our coal over the ocean to be worked into 

 objects for our daily use, rather than manufacture for ourselves. 

 When we shall have reached that degree of enlightened sagacity, 

 of circuitous exchange, and of practical common sense, we may 

 hope to be kindly granted the privilege of exporting our wheat to 

 England, there to be converted into flour, and thence to be brought 

 back, before we convert it into bread. Then we shall be prosper- 

 ous, indeed ! Such are the blessings of Free Trade. Let us learn, 



